This one isn’t so much a Friend Zone as an Ignore Zone, and it wasn’t very significant. But I’m going to detail it anyway.
Basically after Andrea rejected me early in my senior year in high school, I was casting about for someone who would actually accept me. During that year’s State Convention (which was a regional Kentucky competition in events like sports, drama, writing, etc., created for Accelerated Christian Education schools) I heard a rumor that Melinda was interested in accepting an invitation from me to the Convention Banquet, which was the only “date” event available at the tiny Baptist school I attended. There was no “prom” allowed, since proms involved dancing.
So I started sending out “feelers” through the other girls at the school, letting them know that I was interested in Melinda too. On the surface it was a good match, since she was a devout Christian like me and not the most popular damn girl at the whole school. Don’t get me wrong, she was still attractive, at least to me. For these reasons I thought she might deign to go to the Banquet with me.
I was very wrong, because Melinda started acting extremely uncomfortable around me, refusing to speak to me, and averting her eyes when I passed. Hmm. In retrospect maybe she was interested in me, but I interpreted these signals as embarrassment at being shown attention by an Uber-Nerd, and didn’t pursue the subject. Once again I failed due to lack of aggressiveness. When I began to notice these responses I dropped the issue and avoided her, too. She eventually went to the banquet with another guy who in my dismissive superiority was “goofy looking and fat.” I never understood it, but in retrospect, I came to learn that personality and compatibility are just as important as appearance.